New Hero Website, New Hero Blog

So the time has FINALLY come, we have a new website up!! Check it out at www.heroandsound.com. It's still a work in progress, but the god awful, seriously outdated portfolio that we had up, is finally gone!!!!

We are still adding stuff to the new portfolio and we have to tweak our existing web store a bit to properly sync up with the new site, but it is there! We also have a new blog, which we are very excited about, so please change your bookmarks and update your feed links. We will no longer be updating this blog and we'll be posting in the new blog on the website the way we always did with this one. We hope you enjoy the new format as much as we do. It is more organized, so if you are only interested in new things at the Boutique or events we have coming up, it should hopefully be easier navigate.

The second phase of the new Hero website involves a brand new, revamped web store that will be more organized, and much easier to search for things, we are super excited for that, so keep an eye out for it later this year.

We owe a big thanks to our friend Mike Literman, who helped us with customizing the code to make this work exactly how we wanted it to, and for helping us fix the site every time we broke it and sent emails with lots of curse words as the subject line.

New Buffalo Prints from Hero Design and Buffalo Rising

Buffalo Rising Print
16" x 20" - 4 color silkscreen print

We were proudly commissioned by Buffalo Rising to create four, brand new limited edition Buffalo Art Prints for their online store. Each design is a 16" x 20" silkscreen print and each is an edition size of only 150 prints, the colors vary from 3 to 5 colors per print. They are all printed on Accent Opaque Smooth White 100# cover stock.


The prints are available now and can be purchased online in the Buffalo Rising store or in person at the Hero Boutique at 93 Allen Street in Buffalo, NY.


From Buffalo Rising:

We've had the good fortune of working with Hero Design in the past and, based on that experience, we were anxious to find another opportunity to work together. Well, we found it and we couldn't be happier with the results.

If you're not familiar with Hero Design, take some time to check out their work. They are hyper-talented young designers the city should be proud to be home to and their work has been lauded in Spin Magazine and elsewhere.

We commissioned Hero Design to create, design and print four distinct Buffalo-themed prints. The results are four unique, beautiful, hand-crafted prints which capture different parts of the Buffalo identity.

Queen City Print
16" x 20" - 4 color silkscreen print

Good Town Print
16" x 20" - 3 color silkscreen print

Steel A Great City Print
16" x 20" - 4 color silkscreen print

More new stuff at Hero today!!

Legendary artist Frank Kozik blows up his original mini and much-loved Mongers, Booger, Lorenzo and Ramirez, into 6-inch form.

Each Monger's mouth accessory is interchangeable with all other Big Mongers' accessories, as well as the ones sold with Frank Kozik's 5-inch Happy Labbit.

Huck Gee's rare & original Dunny from series 1 is back in 20-inch form.

Ultra-limited and hand-signed by the artist, Skullhead Dunny is taking over...

Only 200 made!

First Fridays in Allentown - PREVIEW SALE at Hero!

This Friday, June 5, in participation with First Fridays Gallery Walk in Allentown, we will be having a special Allentown Art Festival Preview Sale at Hero.

As many of you know, every year during the Allentown Art Festival we always host a KILLER mark down sale at Hero. Take advantage and avoid the big crowds, the screaming sticky children, greasy turkey legs and those ugly lawn ornaments that threaten to take your eye out, and come to Hero this Friday between 6 - 9pm to get a special preview sale of whats to come next weekend during the Art Festival and get the goods before everyone else!!

For Sale - Call For Work

Buffalo based Designer/Artists Patricia Schraven and Nick Bruscia have put out a call for work for a pop-up storefront exhibition to be hosted at the WNY Book Arts Center. The event is sponsored by WNYBAC and Hero Design Studio.

Participants are asked to re-think the idea of the souvenir, and create NEW objects to be shown in a temporary POP-UP storefront in the City of Buffalo. This is a chance to redefine and comment on the social and cultural atmosphere of our city. Souvenirs for Buffalo will be a one-off exhibition in late June 2009. Objects must be produced in multiples. There is a $20 submission fee for any number of proposals up to 4. For submissions and more info, email forsalebuffalo (at) gmail.com

More info will be posted on their blog www.forsalebuffalo.wordpress.com soon!!

Aesthetic Outburst

Self proclaimed 'art-obsessed gal', Abbey Hendrickson of Aesthetic Outburst (one of my favorite blogs) caps off her graduate work at UB this weekend with her thesis show:

1716 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14209
An exhibition of recent work by Abbey Hendrickson, Shelby Baron + Ryan Legassicke
Opening Reception Saturday April 18, 7-10 pm

For Abbey's musings "about art, artists, collecting, and design...all mixed in with daily musings on life in general" see her blog http://www.aestheticoutburst.blogspot.com/

Congrats Abbey!

Buffalo featured in Venus Zine's City Guide

Look for our Flatstock roundup, photos, new prints, etc, next week, as I have been stricken by the Flatstock Flu aka SXSW SARS! All the hand shaking, late nights, alcohol and flights actually got me this year!! (Somehow, I have managed to avoid it every other year, BLAH!)


For now enjoy this feature on Buffalo in Venus Zine that includes Hero and many of our Buffalo friends. Venus Zine is an independent print + online publication that focuses on women in music and other creative arts. They are based in Chicago, and are working on putting together indie guides to cities around the country. Buffalo was their third feature!

Here is the link:
https://venuszine.com/articles/art_and_culture/travel/5466/VZ_City_Guides_Buffalo_NY

Hero in Print's Regional Design Annual 2008

{sorry about the not so great scans its hard to scan from a magazine without cutting it up and I wasn't gonna do that, k?}

Into to the Mid-Atlantic Region, featuring a quote from Hero's Elizabeth Manos Brickey

CD Packaging for Stand




Lemonheads Poster


The Decemberists Poster

Broken Social Scene Poster

Hero Design Studio in Print's Regional Design Annual 2008

On newstands now. Find us in the "East - Mid Atlantic" Region (starts on pg 209), we won 4 awards and we are quoted in the intro for our region. We are soo proud, and totally geeking out over it, still.

We'll be posting images soon of our pieces in the annual.

This B.U.D.'s for You - Photos

Visit our online gallery here to see the entire collection of custom Blow Up Dolls from the show - any unsold toys will be available for purchase from the site this Friday 10/31 at 12pm EST.



Check out more photos from the opening reception here.

From Yr House to Arhaus - Ugly Winners - One Night Art Show

(written by "Wudenbachs" on Buffalo Rising)

Part of the tenacity of the Buffalo arts scene is the ability of local artists to pull together to produce and exhibit work despite somewhat limited resources and outlets. Unusual venues for art shows such as the recent one evening show at the 10th street community garden show that artists have the will and creative means to get their work shown to new audiences and attract art patrons to off-the-beaten-path exhibition spaces.

Ugly Winners is another one night art show featuring new work by artists associated with Buffalo's skateboarding, DIY, and indie music subcultures. It's a chance for oft marginalized emerging artists to come together and share their work in the spirit of the now modestly famous Beautiful Losers art movement of skateboarding artists, graffiti artists, crafters, and photographers.

The opening (and closing) reception is Saturday, October 11, from 8pm-11pm at Arhaus, an apartment space located at 61 Elmwood Ave, just south of Allen St.

Work will be featured by Chris Fritton, JP Gillespie, BREZO, Bobby Griffiths, Joshua Lee Castle, Amy Hartman, Brendan Casey, Kit Bowman, Kyla Kegler, Beth Manos, Mark Brickey (that's us), Jay Stankiewicz and more!

Dunny Series 5 - Release Party and Trading Party September 4!

STAY UP TO DATE ON ALL THE DETAILS OF THE PARTY HERE:
www.heroandsound.com/dunny5

Hero will present at Pecha Kucha - Part of TypeCon2008

Type-themed "Pecha Kucha Night" - an Evening of Mini Presentations From Design Legends and Rising Stars
Hallwalls Cinema
8:00 pm

Anyone who has attended a Pecha Kucha night before knows that the keys to the event are it's fast pace and visual punch. Each presenter is allowed exactly 20 images, each shown for exactly 20 seconds, adding up to 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. Time limits are strictly adhered to, and anything goes – from short films to bagpipe accompaniment to super-hot product design.

The TypeCon2008 edition of Pecha Kucha brings a stellar line-up of presenters from Buffalo and beyond: Julian Montague, Rick Griffith, Mark and Jill Wisz (OtherWisz), Stephen Coles, Greg Meadows, Mark Brickey (Hero Design Studio), Shasti O'Leary Soudant, Mark Byk and Kristine Tortora (AmpersandAmpersand), Brian Maloney, and Emily Luce.

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/buffalo/7

Eggy Dunny and Munny Series 4 at Hero NOW!!!

To-Fu Head creators, Devilrobots, crack out Eggy Dunny.

This pearlescent-shelled, 8-inch vinyl is the perfect partner for making omelettes or souffle, or egging the neighbor's house.

Customize MUNNY beyond all recognition in version 4 of this DIY KR classic.

Beards, toupees and other incognito gear morph MUNNY into the master of disguise.

You can draw and paint on MUNNY, use crayons, pencils, ketchup, or anything else you can think of. You can make clothes for MUNNY. Make things to put in MUNNY's hands! Snuggle him, pierce him, drape him, cherish him. MUNNY is open to pretty much anything.

Each 7-inch figure comes with four blind accessories, a marker and collectable sticker.

Hero's March Cover Story in Buffalo Rising, available online

Check out the online version of our March cover story in Buffalo Rising here.

Hero Featured in Buffalo Rising's March Issue

Check out the latest issue of Buffalo Rising, out now! Hero designed the cover of this music issue, featuring a small collection of our posters and there is a wonderfully written, 3 page article and interview with Hero inside. We are very excited about this issue and to be featured on the cover!! Check it out!!

French Dunny Trading Party at Hero Thursday 2/21

HoneyBaby are Here.

Four different characters Debbu, Jo, Daisy, & Lucy designed by Garythinking. Each come with mini stand with sticker. Plasticapt Creations has really made a splash with their first few releases. Fore more info about Honey-B you can check out www.honey-b-town.com.

Coming Soon - Honeybaby 3" Minis

These are so stinken' cute, I can't wait to get them in:


Four different characters Debbu, Jo, Daisy, & Lucy designed by Garythinking. Each come with mini stand with sticker. I think Plasticapt Creations has really made a splash with their first few releases. Fore more info about Honey-B you can check out www.honey-b-town.com.

Article on Hero on Buffalo Rising

Check out this article about Hero on today's Buffalo Rising, click here.